Thursday, May 13, 2010

the Political Situation

WAR! People of Unkerlant, once more our beloved country finds itself embroiled in another conflict scant decades after the Great War. Once again, brother fights brother, and we here at the Unkerlant Chronicle will endevour to report the facts as the battle unfolds.
No less than five political factions have risen to prominence. These factions are no doubt the outgrowth of long simmering regional and class grudges.
In our capital of Koenigstadt, King Ludwig was taken under protective custody by order of Prime Minister Blatzenberg. The Prime Minister, always a weak man, was surely pressured into this poor decision by the ambitious Minister for War and Foreign Affairs, Oktavian Finkel. Finkel has had long standing ties with the Iron Legion, a burgeoning fascist movement in the south started by the now disgraced Borogravian branch of the Royal Family.
The King, however did not stay in captivity long! Loyal members of the Koenigstadt Civil Militia, long a political force themselves, have rescued the King and spirited him a away to an undisclosed location somewhere in the Reichwald region. There, an army calling themselves Ludwigians, have risen to protect the King, and place him back on the throne, making Unkerlant once again a monarchy. They are led by the charismatic General Rolf Von Stern, Commadant of the Civic Militia.
Seeing a chance to replace what they see as a corrupt government, two separate democratic factions have risen in the north. People for a Free Unkerlant, or PFU, led by academic Lothar Luttelbuch, want not only to rid the government of the nobility that traditionally run it, but also open Unkerlant to the wider world with trade and communication. Unkerlant United, on the other hand, believe in a more isolationist approach, keeping with old traditions. Arch Duke Viktor Von Volborg, nominal leader of the UU, would like to see a restoration of the Old Constitution and its grander rights of the nobility.
Meanwhile, the rural south has bred a more different attitude. Maybe because of its long dealings with Transbalkania, the people there have formed farming collectives and trade unions, calling themselves the Unkerlant Workers Party. Their enigmatic leader, Oskar Phlattz, makes sure supplies are flooding in from both Transbalkania and as far as Russia.
These five factions are by no means the only forces operating in our fair homeland. The factions themselves are made up of smaller militias, groups, and parties. And, throughout the countryside, more communities are arming and preparing for action.